Intruder Alert!

Big news – my new YA novel Intruder will be hitting the bookshelves on June 1 next year!

So excited. Not only because hello, I have a new novel coming out!, but because now I get to spend the rest of this year on the heady delights of the edit.

Yes, folks, it’s a guilty pleasure: holing up in my new office with turkish delight, massaging all the kinks out of my manuscript.

For me, the first draft can feel a bit like a marathon, exhausting and endless. But the subsequent drafts, they’re  the well-earned warm-down that stretches and primes me for the challenges ahead.

Finessing characters’ backstories to reveal motivation, ironing out tone, teasing out thematic links…. this is my favourite part of the writing process. And I’ve been fortunate to have had first readers who’ve helped take Intruder to the next level.

Bouquets to uber-librarian Miss Trish Buckley, my wonderful  agent Leonie Tyle, Publisher Zoe Walton and Editor Cristina Briones at Random House Australia for their thought-provoking and incisive comments and questions. You’ve helped make Intruder all that it could and should be.

I’ll be flying off to Barcelona tonight with laptop and editing notes under my wing.  Hasta pronto mis amigos!